Place



2 sheets-sheet 1.v

(No Model.)

J. PLACE.

ART 0F KNITTING STOGKINGS.

Patented Jan. l1. 1887.

Fl @Q Sim QQ.

@mwtof JOHN PLACE.

4ciczbmg.

we( j@ mw@ N. PETERS. Phcwmhngmphsr. whingmn. D. z;

(No Model) 2 Sheet-s-Sheeb 2. J. H. PLACE.

ART 0F, KNITTING STOGKINGS. No. 356,078.. Patented Jan. .11, 1887.

WITNESSEa 8 y INVENTOR JoHN HPLACE. b5 58mm-klm my invention.

JOHN H. PLACE, OF DECATUR, ILL., ASSIGNOR OF TlO-THIRD'S TO DAVIDE. ALEXANDER AND THOMAS I). MATTHEWS, BOTH OF SAME PLACE.

ART OF KNITTING STOCKINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 356,078, dated January 11, 1887.

Application filed Match 1G, 1885.

T0 @ZZ wtoin/ it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. PLACE, aresident of the city of Decatur, county of Macon, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Knitting Stockings, of which the following is a specification.

In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the specication, Figure l represents the external appearance of the foot and ankle portion of a stocking knit according to Fig. 2 shows the band that forms the foundation for my toestructure. Fig. 3 shows the band and the external surface of aportion of the stocking-toe formed thereon. Fig. 4 shows the position Fig. 3 will maintain in the completed stocking.V Fig. 5 is a view of the internal surface of the band and position of the toe represented in Fig. 3, and Fig. 6 represents the manner in which the band,Fig. 2, is formed.

The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

The object of my invention is to enable stockings to be knit speedily and completely by commencing at the extremity of the toe portion and continuing in regular progression to the termination of the leg, and to make it possible to regulate the form of the toe portion.

In knitting stockings according to my invention I use a machine having two straight parallel rows of independent needles, the machine shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 54,109, dated April 24, 1866, serving as an example of thistype of machine; I thread the machine iu the usual mannerby passingtheinitial or setting-up7 thread c across the machine, which causes it Ato be looped alternately over the points of the needles of the two rows, the loops a a in Fig. 6 indicating the loops over the needles of one row, and b b the loops over the needles of the other row, the thread e passing back and forth between them. The needles on one side ofthe machine are then thrown out of operation, and a band, f, formed by knitting with the needles on the'other side.. This band can be made as long and wide as desired, although I generally make it four stitches wide and regu-l late the length according to the size ofthe article to be knitted. Vhen the band is completed the loops a c are upon the same needles serial No. 158,975. (No model.)

as originally set up, but the loops bb have been thrown off theirs and the loops d d have taken their places. and remove the initial thread e by catching hold of its free end and gently pulling it,

which causes the row of loops c c in the next Y adjoining thread to be carried over the pointsof the needles upon that side ofl the machine and releases the loops a c. If desired, however, the thread c need not be removed, but be retained and the stocking completed, as hereinafter described; but as the stitches formed by it are just double the size of the others, having been formed by passing the thread from `one row of needles to the other, while the other stitches are formed by passing it only half-way across between them, it causes that part of the band to be too loose and open; so I prefer to remove it, as described above.

After the band has been formed the needles upon both sides ofthe machine are thrown out of operation, except a few upon each side, at the middle of the band. The thread is then knit around the operating-needles, and the needles at each end of the operatingneedles successively thrown into operation as the knitting progresses, until all the needles upon which the band was originally formed have been thrown into operation, when the stocking may be completed in any well-known way. As the bulging portions g are being formed upon each side of the band the thread is carried across it at every half round, as shown at h in Fig. 5, the central portion, i, upon each side of which the needles are not thrown out of operation when the bulging portions are com-` I now stop the machine menced, not having such floating portions of go thread across it, these' floating threads h, which are upon the inside of the stocking when completed, being the only wayin which the appearance of the work diers from the rest ofthe stocking.

Mittens and other articles having similar terminations may of course be knitted with a similar band in the same manner, the form or .shape to be given to the article being regulated in the same way as described above.

Having thus described myinvention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United Statesv l. The hereinbefore-described improvement IOO e e Y 356,078

in the nrt of knitting stockings or similar artieles, consisting of knitting a dat band of suitable width and length, then throwing out of operation the needles at eneh end thereof',

5 then forming a, bulging portion upon eneh side of the middle portion ofsaid band hyknitting uponA a gradually-increasing number of needles, and finally in completing said nrtiele in any well-known manner.

1o 2. Thehereinbefore-deseribedimprovement inthe art of knitting stockings or similar zirtieles, consisting in irst forming n row of loops upon two rows of needles, then knitting` a flat band of suitable width and length upon one 15 row alone, then removing the initial or set- 

